Pipes are often used to smoke materials such as tobacco. Moisture from a fluid may be mixed with the pipe smoke to ameliorate harshness and to impart a pleasant flavor or aroma to the smoke. So-called hookah pipes are smoking apparatuses which mixed pipe smoke with moisture.
A hookah pipe has a bottle containing fluid. The bottle may be made of glass, such as crystal. A stem is mounted to the bottle. The stem includes a passage conveying smoke from a burner cup on top of the stem through a down tube projecting from the stem and into the fluid in the bottle. The stem is preferably made of metal. The smoke drawn through the stem is expelled from the down tube beneath the surface of the fluid and allowed to bubble up through the fluid to the surface, absorbing moisture as it rises to the fluid surface. A second passage formed within the stem conveys the now-moistened smoke out to a hose. A smoker smokes the hookah pipe by drawing smoke through the hose.
Hookah pipes may have a plurality of hoses—each with a separate fitting connecting them to the stem—thereby permitting multiple smokers to use the pipe. The stopper prevents air from being drawn through an unused fitting into the stem when the smoker inhales, bypassing the burner and destroying the draft. If, on the other hand, the hookah pipe is intended to be smoked by more than one smoker, each smoker is provided with a separate hose. Multiple smokers smoke the hookah pipe by inhaling alternately through their respective hoses. Smokers who are not currently inhaling may squeeze their hoses to block them, preventing air from being drawn through them down into the stem while the other smoker is inhaling. If one of the non-inhaling users forgets to pinch off his hose, or does so inadequately, the inhaling smoker will draw mostly smokeless air through the open hose, rather than smoke through the burner cup.